Best Race for GWF?

x3lade

I'm wondering what would be the best race for the Great Weapon Fighter class, and I'm wondering if you will be greatly penalized if not choosing those race because of racial benefits

ch80

If your into maxing out your char to the best possible potential then yes in some aspects race will matter. However the racials and starting bonus's in my belief are not a maker or a breaker for me. You will have the chance down the line to add points to any attributes that you feel suffered because of choosing a certain race. With that said strength and constitution will be your primary attributes for a GWF so a race with a starting bonus to those stats would be beneficial. I personally feel the role-playing of the race you want to be trumps the one or two point bump you are going to recieve to those stats. However min/maxers are going to tell you that ideally you should be a certain race for a certain class. At the end of the day it isnt going to break your char or ruin gameplay. So i would say to you from my personal opinion choose whatever race you desire it's your world and your experience.

warpet

think human or half elf will be the best for gwf

ch80

Dwarf would honestly be the "best" for gwf because of +2 to con and +2 to strength.

bruddajokka

Dwarf, Human, Half-Orc gets a +2 to Str, and Dex. Which is weird cause you think it'd be to Con instead.

ch80

bruddajokka wrote: »

Dwarf, Human, Half-Orc gets a +2 to Str, and Dex. Which is weird cause you think it'd be to Con instead.

I dont believe this is the case, many places including this site (though it is incomplete at the moment) have the racials listed differently. Also gameplay videos on youtube will show the racials but here is a link to a quick overview. http://www.neverwinter-online.com/races/

x3lade

About max/min, I think if I were to make a High-DPS "Glass Cannon" GWF, I think the best race would actually be the Tiefling because of bloodhunt (Additional damage by 5% on targets below half health) which may definitely over way a measly +2 STR when we're talking about endgame/max level as you will be hitting high damage numbers. Additionally the +2 Ability Scores can be put into Con so the racials for this race isn't a lost cause

nemesiswarlock

I was thinking the same thing about the Tiefling

gillrmn

Orc, half-orc.

kotli

Any of the fighter races that is Dwarf or the we can do anything well humans will be best picks, just make sure to pick the option to get +2 to STR and CON on them. I believe Half Orc will be able to get +2 STR & CON as well but I am not sure. Outside of the STAT bonuses theres nothing special in D&D4 between races and in NO the extra racial bonuses is just +1% to something minor in most cases anyway.

draven230

I think Half Orc would be the best

kotli

TBH the main stat will be STR with DEX and CON as secondary stats means Dwarf and Half Orc will both be good with human in 3rd.
Anyway it really comes down to what Dice numbers to get for each race though.

x3lade

For sure dice roll will matter, making sure you get STR as high as you can (possibly max at 20 for character creation). But after the stats, theres the racial passive, looking at the Half Orc the racials is pretty good, I think they get +5% Critical damage.

But because I bought the Heroes of the North pack I feel that I must roll a dark elf lol... Does anyone know what 3 racials they get?

kgl7

Right now, the Great Weapon Fighter is still a bit of a mystery. It is a striker, but what is the secondary purpose of the class?

For me, if it becomes a controller as well, crowd controlling mobs, stats might be much more important than the passive racials of each class.

Right now, the two top choices for a striker based GWF is Tiefling and Half orc in second.

silknight

Probably Half-orc / dwarf / human. And prolly Orc when it comes round.

cerek2

The Great Weapon Fighter is NOT a Striker (High offense, Soft defense), it's in the same Defender category with the Guardian Fighter. It is more offensive and less defensive than the Guardian fighter, but it is a Defender none the less. It's obviously second best at the role of tanking. Instead of the Shield, it uses a ranged aoe dive-in attack, knock backs, slows, sprint, dodge and does have a taunt. The description video also clearly states medium to heavy armor. I'm assuming it's a progressive thing because the high level GWF definitely appears to be wearing plate, not scale, but I could be wrong. Either way, it's not Cloth or Leather.

To reference City of Heroes and City of Villains:

Guardian = Tank / DPS
GWF = DPS / Tank

Not all classes have dual roles, however, because I think the Rogue is just a straight up killing machine "Single Target DPS". The Cleric is "Healing / DPS" and the Control Wizard is "AOE Control / DPS". It appears to me that none of the classes are overlapping other than the inherent ability to do any kind of DPS. They all have totally different flavors about them.

climaxx44

I think Half-Orc will be the best GWF race for sure, then dwarf.

gillrmn

cerek2 wrote: »

The Great Weapon Fighter is NOT a Striker (High offense, Soft defense), it's in the same Defender category with the Guardian Fighter. ....

From what we see in the videos, imo it is a Fighter skin of Berserker. So I would sill consider it as striker. Half-orc ftw!

kgl7

It is true that Fighters are per role defenders, but an offensive orientated fighter still gives up his shield and therefore tons of defensive potential to do damage.

Off tank, maybe, but I say it is more a controller/striker type character.

jendryn

Tiefling, then Half-Orc. Only thing Dwarf grants is a +2 Str bonus...which means very little. Crit elevation from Half-Orc and +5% bonus below half HP from tiefling will both play a far bigger role in the end game.

killacasey

Personally I preferred the Tiefling for its racial ability to drop the enemy attacks power, made their attacks weaker and survivability was slightly heightened.

kgl7

I definately 2nd that Tiefling is by far the best candidate right now.

steampunky

kgl7 wrote: »

orientated

*head explodes*

Oriented! Offensively Oriented Fighter. Orientate is not a word.

But yeah. Um... They're Defenders. They do more damage than a Guardian Fighter and lose the Shield, but they make up for the loss of passive damage mitigation in exchange for active damage mitigation, such as knockback or stun effects. They will likely be more useful in swarm based combat and less useful against single hard targets, for the purposes of tanking, due to how limited active damage mitigation is on hard targets (such as bosses). Personally I can't wait to roll up my Half Orc Great Weapon Fighter.

Here's hoping they offer us some big axes or hammers and not just swords.

-Rachel-

kgl7

steampunky wrote: »

*head explodes*

Oriented! Offensively Oriented Fighter. Orientate is not a word.

But yeah. Um... They're Defenders. They do more damage than a Guardian Fighter and lose the Shield, but they make up for the loss of passive damage mitigation in exchange for active damage mitigation, such as knockback or stun effects. They will likely be more useful in swarm based combat and less useful against single hard targets, for the purposes of tanking, due to how limited active damage mitigation is on hard targets (such as bosses). Personally I can't wait to roll up my Half Orc Great Weapon Fighter.

Here's hoping they offer us some big axes or hammers and not just swords.

-Rachel-

Orientate is a word. British as well.

Still, I would argue that causing "bosses" to be knocked down or otherwise unable to strike back isn't tanking, as blocking, taking damage is.

I find, how they've explained the Great Weapon Fighter to be much more of a controller than the control wizard gets credit for.

draconixs0

Dwarfs are cool... Def will be my main char.... Sec elf ;-p

steampunky

kgl7 wrote: »

Orientate is a word. British as well.

Still, I would argue that causing "bosses" to be knocked down or otherwise unable to strike back isn't tanking, as blocking, taking damage is.

I find, how they've explained the Great Weapon Fighter to be much more of a controller than the control wizard gets credit for.

Offensively Turn and Face East Fighter doesn't make sense, though (Orientate means to turn towards the Orient, in the East).

But yeah. It's not "Tanking" by blocking or taking damage, no. That isn't the core of tanking, either. Tanking is about aggro management. Most games have players who manage aggro take less damage through armor or heal much faster than other characters, or whatever. Armor and shields, however, are not the core of tanking. They're methods that allow you -to- tank. They are a form of damage mitigation, usually relative (percentage-based) but in rare instances you get absolute damage mitigation (like Champions Online has in it's Invulnerability powers). Control effects and debuffs are also methods of damage mitigation, they are simply -active- mitigation rather than passive mitigation.

Wearing a suit of armor takes no effort on the player's part. You don't spend actions "Wearing Armor Harder" to increase your mitigation. Your shield, on the other hand, is an active damage mitigation effect. You actively (to the exclusion of other abilities) increase your mitigation in that situation. But you can't block and use a daily attack power at the same time.

Control effects (like knock or stun, immobilize or slow) are another form of active damage mitigation. Their only function is to lower the maximum incoming damage. If you've got 2 guys throwing 100 points of damage in 6 seconds and you hold one of them completely for 6 seconds you have lowered the incoming damage to 50 points. Is that any different than wearing heavy armor that grants passive damage resistance of 50%?

The only difference lies in whether it is active or passive. A passive benefit allows you to continue attacking without "Missing a Beat". This is why most control effects also have a damage component, to offset the lost action-time spent activating them. Whether it's a shout that knocks your enemies down or lifting them up in a Force-Choke or whatever.

Mitigation is part of tanking, but tanking is not exclusively mitigation. Similarly, passive and active mitigation can both be used in tanking to minimize incoming damage, to allow you to tank (control aggro) longer.

And yes; Healing is also a damage mitigation function. So popping pots or self-heal powers is another example of active damage mitigation!

-Rachel-

labbb

You got the Half part right but its HALF-ELF !!!!!

What part of more gold don't you understand ?

bluesteel8

labbb wrote: »

You got the Half part right but its HALF-ELF !!!!!

What part of more gold don't you understand ?

Can't take your gold with you when you die... Oh wait, yes you can!

zakzya

No love for halflings? Deflection and CC resist, sounds pretty good to me.

jpdegraaf

How about you just play the race you love? I had the equivalent of a human GWF on a NWN2 server a while back. He was a gardener, and I role-played him as such. He'd go out adventuring looking for petunias or parsley. He was an absolutely riot to play, and he also kicked butt when necessary.

Anyone can make a cookie-cutter min-max type character. What truly impresses me is when a player finds a niche character concept and plays it well.

jestersmiles

Human looks to be the best